Triscribe

Tag: brooklyn

  • Taking a Moment to Pause and Reflect 2024

    Try to remember the kind of September

    When life was slow and oh, so mellow.

    Try to remember the kind of September

    When grass was green and grain was yellow.

    “Try to Remember,” from The Fantasticks.

    Time passes. I find myself disliking the mantra “Never Forget,” because I’m more concerned about what we learned from remembering. If September 11, 2001, was a nightmare, we somehow came together on September 12, 2001, if my memory isn’t so hazy to recall the attempts to help each other.

    I’m not sure if we learned our lessons from September 11, 2001. I don’t even think that we learned our lessons from the Covid pandemic. I don’t think that we have done a great job of working together and doing better, and being resilient. I want all of that, but… I guess reality is the real teacher. Maybe my mood has been affected by the presidential election year, or life in general.

    Photo I had taken some years ago, at the Brooklyn Promenade.

    23 years ago, I was trying to figure out how to make any use of my final year in law school, and then that Tuesday happened, the horrors marring the perfect blue sky. I didn’t imagine the entirely different landscape that we’ve had since. I never imagined that all the crises and calamities we’d be through.

    To this day, I still feel a little creeped out by a perfect blue sky.

    On a nice day from the F train station in my neighborhood, I can see the top of One World Trade Center, and it can still feel a little awkward to me. 23 years feels surreal, even if I can feel the passage of time.

    In 2021, FC shared this over on Facebook, so I’m passing it along again: “Wake Me Up When September Ends” – Green Day (Cover by First to Eleven):

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=V2tvjQG92hk%3Fsi%3DRM9QYaf43zcX-s1t

    See here for last year’s post. I’m hoping that I’ll get to the Brooklyn Promenade at some point today. I wish you all a peaceful and thoughtful day. Thanks again for being here. — ssw15

  • Happy New Year’s Eve 2023

    Figured I’d put in a last minute post on New Year’s Eve. In 2023, I think that I’ll remember: the orange skies of early June 2023, the “trying to return to in-person social activities because the pandemic is over”; the deluge of Sept 30, 2023; and the first time that I didn’t get to finish 50k words for NaNoWriMo 2023, after all these years of NaNoWriMo.

    There was “returning to see movies in a theater” – but I still didn’t do a personal “Barbie”-“Oppenheimer” combination. Seriously, though – Barbie was a curiously interesting movie, even if questions of existentialism and the meaning of being a woman or a Ken weren’t answered totally to my satisfaction. Oh, and of course – “Everything Everywhere All At Once” made it all the way at the Oscars, winning all the way!

    Don’t forget the writers and actors strikes, and how the summer made us think about the labor movement. What any of this means in the long run – who knows? I’m curious to see what will happen to the shows that I’ve liked – “Will Trent,” for instance, on ABC. I got behind (again) on “Ghosts” on CBS, and I have yet to try out the original BBC version of “Ghosts.”

    I binged through “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season 1, because Paramount Plus made it free for viewing (see here about that: https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-1-streaming-free-1850496540), in prep for Season 2. Great stuff from Season 1, and I heard great things about Season 2 from “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”

    I also watched the two seasons of “Dark Winds” on AMC. I liked how they portrayed the Navajo world of the late 1960s/early 1970s, and Navajo noir was fascinating. I did keep in mind that the series adapted from the Tony Hillerman book series, but with even more contributions from indigenous peoples, than the last TV adaptation that had been on PBS (but still produced by Robert Redford, who got George RR Martin on board this time). Adaptations can be illuminating for characters and stories; I just wished that “Dark Winds” had more episodes for fleshing out ideas and characters.

    More than ever, I’m not sure about the streaming landscape. Short seasons are vastly different than the old 22 to 26 episode seasons that the old broadcast networks did, and sometimes still does.

    We’ll see if I get to post on the books read in 2023…

    Anyway, here’s hoping that 2024 will be better. All best wishes and see you on the other side. Keep at it, everyone! – ssw15

  • Merry Christmas 2023! Happy Holidays, or at least don’t be so dazed…

    Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

    In these trying times – trying as ever, what with all the armed conflicts, partisan politics, mass shootings, human pettiness, and whatever craziness of climate change and the COVID virus, which is now part of the illnesses out there: try to find some light in all the darkness of the world.

    I tried to be in the right mood for Winter Solstice of 2023, but I didn’t even timely send my Winter Solstice greetings to friends.

    A friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video (see below) about how people in Hong Kong celebrate Winter Solstice, and I was all: wow, I didn’t even know what “Winter Solstice observation” was called in Cantonese, and I realized that I’m so under-educated about this. It didn’t help that I didn’t/don’t care for glutinous rice balls (what we’d eat for Winter Solstice observation), so my adherence to Chinese traditions hasn’t been very good at all…

    (https://youtu.be/NlGZoDZY7CE?feature=shared, or see below:)

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=NlGZoDZY7CE%3Fsi%3D0t7nxnC8GXfF3b4T

    But, trying to get into a Christmas spirit? Well, on my part, it’s the usual complicated feelings of not being Christian, of questioning organized religion, and of wondering about anything and everything.

    But, a binge of Christmas music might help? Maybe? I tried listening to a lot of Pentatonix (their YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@PTXofficial/featured), since I’m a sucker for a cappella…

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=ku7ohU1IGls%3Fsi%3D2n4P3BKpAEXWrTAe

    Or check out this past PBS NewsHour Christmas 2021 presentation of US members singing Feliz Navidad; I like it for being so cheerful and hopeful: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/u-s-service-members-perform-feliz-navidad.

    An old picture from Christmas Eve 2011; from my Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY, Christmas Eve 2011 photographs. This not as gaudy as the Christmas decorations one may find in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, NY.

    Anyway, best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas and to all a good night. Let’s see if I’ll get to do one more blog post before the end of the year. But, be safe and enjoy the rest of 2023. — ssw15

  • Happy December 2023! Or Post-NaNoWriMo 2023

    Happy December 2023! Wait, what? How did the time fly by like this?

    Well, the streak has finally broken: I didn’t make it to 50k words for National Novel Writing Month 2023, falling short of 45,000. But, I did get past 44,500, so it’s better than zero. I’ll have to see what is salvageable, if anything was at all. There’s next year, I guess. Writing sure is a process.

    The above image is/was the 2023 NaNoWriMo Writer Badge, which you can find over at the NaNoWriMo website, with more info about NaNoWriMo.

    Work and life took a lot of my mood from writing and writing prep this year, unfortunately. Regardless, to all of us who did it, 1 word, 50k words, or more: we survived NaNoWriMo 2023!

    On a more positive note: I was also in the middle of reading Haruki Murakami’s “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,” a memoir of Murakami as a runner and a writer who runs. I finished reading the book, and I liked it. I am not a runner, but the book gave me a lot to think about when life is such a process for us all.

    Anyway, I’ll see about posting again on Triscribe soon before the year winds down. How does the time get away from us all?! — ssw15

    (cross-posted to sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com.)

  • Observations of the 1st Quarter of 2023

    Happy April 2023! How did the first quarter of the year go by so quickly? I usually blame that on how February is such a short month, and for me, March goes by in a blink because I spend the weekends watching copious amounts of college basketball.

    March Madness was indeed full of Madness, with the upsets. I still can’t believe how New Jersey get to be the state of Cinderellas. In March 2022, St. Peter of New Jersey was the low seed that went far. In March 2023: we had two New Jersey institutions of higher learning: Fairleigh Dickinson got to be the 16-seed that shocked us all (they were a play-in team, for God’s sake!), and Princeton – a 15-seed – somehow made it to the Sweet 16 round.

    Hope springs eternal that an Ivy League team make it past the Sweet 16!

    And yes, only in college basketball can we think of an Ivy League school as a Cinderella. It is weird to view an elite school as a Cinderella at all, and just how New Jersey is Princeton? Beats me. And honestly, the only time I’d root for Princeton is when they represent the Ivy League.

    I do prefer March Madness over March Sadness 2020, which was when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down everything.

    While I’m glad that COVID-19’s perpetual March is behind us, I’m still not sure where my head is with COVID-19. Are we as a nation ever going to be more equitable, when the pandemic showed how much we are not? Did we learn anything from the pandemic, and how we are to avoid the next one (or at least be better at responding to mitigate the painfulness)?

    Plus, emergencies are going to keep happening because we’re in a world very much affected by climate change, which is real and is causing all kinds of weather fluctuations. Are we going to do more at a societal level? How can we keep asking individuals to take action when we need more action?

    The above questions are entirely rhetorical, of course…

    The first quarter of 2023 was also a weird winter, with a paltry snowfall in New York City and an average higher than normal temperatures. Perhaps climate change skeptics can remain skeptical, but it’s weird to have had random low frigid temperatures that veered into higher than normal.

    April is National Poetry Month. But, of course, I managed a re-read of Billy Collins’ Aimless Love in March 2023.

    I completed reading Mary Oliver’s Dream Work in April so far. Will I get to another poetry book before the end of the month? We shall see.

    I have an intention to read more in 2023 than I did in 2022, but it’s not like I follow any real reading goal.

    Girl Scout Cookies Season 2023: I hope we don’t lose sight that this is part of fundraising for the kids, but the craze for the new Raspberry Rally cookie seemed too much to me.

    Like, hey, greedy bastards, the point of Girl Scout cookies is to help the kids, not buy the new cookies to re-sell them for your own profit. And hey, the people who are desperate to get the Raspberry Rally cookies – why are you so desperate that you’ll go to eBay for the cookies? How is that safe, and again, you’re not helping the kids by buying them cookies off of eBay.

    Restrain yourselves, people… (see here for a March 4, 2023, CNN Wire report regarding the Girl Scouts’ asking people to not buy Raspberry Rally off of eBay: https://abc7ny.com/girl-scouts-raspberry-rally-new-cookie-ebay/12909915/).

    Thanks to A, the offspring of FC and P, I ordered a box of Raspberry Rally before the boxes ran out.

    Pros: I like that it’s a solid and crunchy cookie with a good bite.

    Cons: it’s a little too sugary for me, the raspberry taste came off as too strong for my taste.

    I suppose that raspberry isn’t quite my flavor. Ironically, I really enjoyed the Berry Crunch cookie that the Girl Scouts sold so many years ago, but it was a short-lived Girl Scout cookie.

    I’m not into Thin Mints, but it is a good balance of mint in a chocolate cookie. I was hoping that the Raspberry Rally was more like that, but to me, it wasn’t quite the right berry and chocolate balance, because it was more of a chocolate coating on a raspberry cookie.

    Movies: isn’t it cool that “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (EEAAO) made it all the way at the Oscars? I finally got to see it in the theater back in March 2023, before the Oscars. Is it a perfect movie? No. Well, okay, not to me. I think that it’s weird and all over the place. I’m not in love with the movie, but I enjoyed it. I thought that it was definitely an intense me, and it tells a very Asian Pacific American story.

    There’s also something fun and poignant about seeing actor Ke Huy Quan win the Oscar, as a kid actor we all saw as Short Round from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” And, Michelle Yeoh as the first Asian-identified woman to win an Oscar is fantastic to see.

    I like to think that EEAAO’s Oscar wins could encourage movie makers to get more diverse stories out there and have more diverse people in front of and behind the cameras. I’ll end this post on a hopeful note, if I learned anything from EEAAO: creatives got to keep being creative! — ssw15

  • The Tragedy of June 19, 1982

    I may be a day late in posting this, but the time for reflection is a never-ending one, really: it’s 40 years since the death of Vincent Chin.

    See here for Emil Guillermo’s perspective, posted June 16, 2022, on the hate crime that had occurred, and how we can reflect. There are no easy answers.

    I’ve proposed for the last eight years a national period of meditation each and every year between June 19 to June 23 to ask ourselves some basic questions. Questions like, “What does it mean to be an Asian American today?” / “What does it take to stand up for a sense of ourselves?” / “Our community? Our personal and public identity?” / “What does real equality, real justice mean today?” Those are the things worth thinking about now and in the future.

    Emil Guillermo

    Guillermo ponders on what is justice, if those who commit the crime don’t take responsibility or don’t show remorse? What is a hate crime, if the intent by the person who commits the crime leads to no admission and no reparation?

    Guillermo further notes:

    No one has to hear from the killer ever. Apology? There’s no there there. / But every year, it’s important for all Asian Americans, past, present, and future, to pause and reflect on what happened on those five days, starting on June 19th and ending on June 23rd, when we awake, inspired to take action, moved by the memory of Vincent Chin.

    The further reality is that, during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian hate persists and reminds us that the perpetual foreigner trope persists, and so we keep struggling somehow for what is better, what does it mean to be American, what is equality, and what is justice.

    So, yes, Guillermo’s questions are very real.

    Significantly, in the 40 years since Vincent Chin’s death, the needs for solidarity and dialog and work persist too. See for more on the struggle of against anti-Asian hate: “Remembering Vincent Chin — and the deep roots of anti-Asian violence,” by Li Zhou, June 19, 2022, over at Vox. Zhou reports:

    Overall, activists note that while the causes of anti-Asian discrimination are enduring and as tenacious today as in the 1980s, thanks to continued activism, awareness about these biases has also increased and improved significantly. Continuing to grow this understanding, and maintaining the willingness to fight back against it, is central to moving forward, they say.

    As a closing note to pass along: Triscribe’s own FC shared, via Facebook, the link to the Vincent Chin 40th Remembrance and Rededication. I hope that I can check out videos of the remembrance later, but there’s also a guide to consider as well.

    Remember to take care of yourself too, as the struggle is real and can be tiring. Keep learning and keep trying. — ssw15

  • Juneteenth 2022

    I hope we take a moment to acknowledge the meaning of Juneteenth, the holiday to commemorate the day that the Emancipation Proclamation reached enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. A lot of events are going on this weekend, and with the observed holiday on June 20, 2022, if you haven’t been on the look out and planned ahead.

    I have heard that Juneteenth can be viewed as a prelude to July 4. I’m of the view that celebrating is all nice and good, but we can and should learn from history and try to do better.

    So many great resources, like documentaries and books and so on – but so little time…! Anyway, feel free to check out the following:

    “Juneteenth, explained,” by Fabiola Cineas, Vox, updated June 17, 2021, to explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth.

    For an illuminating discussion, check out a re-broadcast on June 17, 2022, on NPR’s Fresh Air of Terry Gross’s interview with historian/law professor Annette Gordon-Reed regarding Juneteenth and Gordon-Reed’s personal perspective as a native of Texas and descendant of enslaved persons (originally broadcasted on May 25, 2021).

    Juneteenth at New York Public Library.

    “Learn About & Celebrate Juneteenth,” posted by Beatrice Alvarez, June 15, 2022, regarding PBS coverage from various PBS stations across the country.

    The local NYC PBS station, WNET (Channel 13), has some great materials and interviews for Juneteenth, posted by Christina Knight, June 14, 2022.

    Per the reporting by Brigid Bergin, Gothamist/WNYC, June 19, 2022, New York City will have various commemorations on Sunday for the holiday and Monday, the observed day.

    Here’s to keep learning and keep striving for true justice and equality. — ssw15.

    (cross-posted to sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com)

  • Memorial Day 2022, or How AAPI Heritage Month 2022 is Winding Down

    Hope you’re having a meaningful Memorial Day. Take a moment to remember those who died in service for us and this country. And may we honor them by doing better ourselves for each other.

    Meanwhile, AAPI Heritage Month 2022 is zooming by like a blink of an eye. We had parades (see here for the previous link about the info) and we have at least one museum exhibit (see the Museum of New York‘s ongoing exhibit of the work of Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya on “Raise Your Voice.”

    We are still in a pandemic. We are still struggling with the perpetual perceptions of being foreign in our own country. Plus, AAPI Heritage Month is Mental Health Awareness Month, so I suggest checking out A Brief But Spectacular Take by Christine Catipon, as a feature of the PBS NewsHour. Catipon, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, Irvine Counseling Center, has a succinct take on being Filipina and overcoming shame and teaching that self-care is important. Worth a watch/listen.

    I meant to check out the link to Barnes & Noble’s post, April 28, 2022, regarding episodes from its podcast Poured Over regarding AAPI literature. But, it’s worth checking out all-year round (and for us at triscribe, AAPI Heritage is a year-round thing anyway).

    For AAPI Heritage Month, Short Wave, an NPR podcast, explores the life of Chien-Shiung Wu: a physicist, Chinese immigrant, a woman, a wife, mother, grandmother, mentor. She should not be forgotten. The episodes are worth a listen. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.

    Also, last but not least, check out FC’s post, from April 2022 – but still timely because FC, as triscribe founder, is our AAPI Heritage inspiration for all he has done for the AAPI legal community in bringing us – law students and practitioners – altogether.

    As it says under the title of triscribe – “We’re still here!” Until next time… — ssw15

  • AAPI Heritage Month 2022

    If you’re up in Manhattan, today, Saturday, May 14, 2022, was Japan Day, with a Japan Day Parade up at Central Park West/81st St to 68th St., with George Takei as a Grand Marshal.

    Plus, tomorrow, Sunday, May 15, 2022, is the city’s first AAPI Heritage Parade. See more info over at Time Out New York.

    It feels a bit last minute, since it was announced on May 11, 2022 (I linked to the Gothamist piece about the announcement) and the cynic in me feels like we can have better ways to fight AAPI hate. But, visibility is a way to deal with hate.

    Our own local Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) is seeking people to join the contingent to march for the parade. RSVP asap if you want to join us, by registering over at the AABANY website. – ssw15

    (cross-posted to sswslitinmotion.tumblr.com)

  • Farewell to 2021…

    A last minute post as we say good-bye to 2021, a strange year in which we kept hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic would get in control and yet… and yet… and yet…

    Well, if you haven’t already done all of this: get vaccinated (plus booster!), wear a face covering, maintain something that looks like physical distancing, and wash hands, and keep hoping that things will get better.

    I’m certain that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the worst Transformer. I know that it’s a Greek letter, but it still sounds like a Transformer to me and now you know that I spent part of my 1980s watching a certain cartoon series…

    A proper 2021 year in review may have to be done at another time. But, hey, Team Triscribe won the best screenwriting award for this year’s 72 Hour Shootout Film contest! That was some good news!

    I did do National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year, but it was a hard slog, with me banging out a lot of crappy writing on the last day. Lesson: do NOT wait until the last day of NaNoWriMo to get through the last 7,000 to 10,000 words. It was sorely painful!

    I remain someone who isn’t into watching Year in Review stuff around Christmas because one never knows what stuff happens at the end of the year.

    But, the days after Christmas gave us the sad news of the passing of Desmond Tutu, Archbishop emeritus of South Africa; former US Senator Harry Reid of Nevada (former Democratic Party leader in the Senate); and former NFL commentator John Madden. Such news bummed me out, let alone the usual bad news of COVID-19, environmental crises, and so on.

    And, then on New Year’s Eve 2021: the passing of Betty White – which just sad because we were all looking forward to seeing her 100th birthday celebration in January 2022.

    I’m hoping to get to a post to review my Book Reading List of 2021, since I did read more in 2021 than in 2020. We shall see. But, best wishes to all for a happy and healthy New Year for 2022!